PLYMOUTH — Peru proved to be a little too much on Senior Night for a young Plymouth tennis team shutting them out 5-0.
“We are definitely may be the most inexperienced team we’ve had since I’ve been here, and that’s not an excuse,” said Plymouth coach Brad Haeck. “We just have to find a way in the future to get some more time on the court and experience on the court. Hopefully, this is a good learning process of hating to lose.”
The lone senior on Plymouth’s senior night is Drew Harrell who dropped his match at number one singles by a 6-3, 6-0 score to Peru’s Ian Potts. After Harrell, Haeck sends three sophomores and three juniors to the court on a given night. With the Pilgrim schedule, it has made for some rough going early on.
“We set up the schedule with good team after good team and we don’t get a night off from a quality opponent,” said Haeck. “It’s good because you feel it will eventually make you better and hopefully we improve faster that way but it’s not so fun taking our lumps right now.”
While the Pilgrims couldn’t crack into the positive on the night’s score it was still a night that saw some movement forward.
“We’ve definitely seen some improvement the last few matches from where we were,” said Haeck. “I was a little disappointed with our doubles on Thursday, we came out and did some better things on Saturday.”
“There are still some frustrating moments when we lack consistency and lack some focus and determination in some scenarios,” said Haeck. “We just have to have the mindset of being relentless and determined.”
Plymouth’s number two doubles team of Liam Fort and Logan Sniadecki gave a bit of a spark at the end, taking their match into three sets before falling to Peru’s duo of Reese and Riley Smith.
The number one team of Matt Manzuk and Easton Strain also pushed their match to a second set tie breaker before falling to Peru’s Pete Pulk and Lucas Slagel.
“We have a group of athletes,” said Haeck. “Some of them are multi-sport athletes and hopefully those kinds of things kick in and we pick up on some things that will become more instinctual.”
“We are still excited about our group,” he said. “We like the work ethic we’ve shown it just hasn’t shown in matches.”
Plymouth moves to 1-4 on the season and will be in action at St. Joe on Thursday.
•Peru 5, Plymouth 0
at Mary Beth Hunter Tennis Complex
Singles
#1 — Ian Potts (Peru) def. Drew Harrell 6-3, 6-0
#2 — Leif Astrep (Peru) def. Bennett Christy 6-1, 6-0
#3 — Ben Beckman (Peru) def. Carter Snyder 6-2, 6-2
Doubles
#1 — Pete Pulk/Lucas Slagel (Peru) def. Easton Strain/Matt Manzuk 6-4, 7-5
#2 — Reese Smith/Riley Smith (Peru) def. Liam Fort/Logan Sniadecki
